Investigations are continuing into the cause of a fire that destroyed the contents of a storage facility used by The Paper Bag Company in Westbury last night.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to the Oakfield Business Centre in Stephenson Road at 8.51pm where they found a unit used to store paper bags alight.

At the height of the blaze, there were six fire crews fighting the fire, including one from Westbury, two from Trowbridge, two from Warminster and on from Bradford on Avon.

They were supported by the incident command vehicle from Devizes, the aerial appliance from Salisbury and an operational support unit, also from Salisbury.

The estate was closed throughout the firefighting operation, and was only opened again in the early hours.

Guy Tadman, watch manager at Trowbridge Fire Station, said: “Investigations are still ongoing at this moment in time. We were there until about 12.30am, but we don’t know the cause as yet.

“Because of the nature of the fire to a storage unit with paper in it, it made it quite difficult to put out.”

By 12.30am today, the attendance had been dropped to four fire engines – from Mere, Chippenham, Corsham and Marlborough – and this was further reduced to a one pump watching brief.

The fire was contained to one unit, which was used by The Paper Bag Company to store stock, although there was some smoke damage to adjacent units.

A crew from Westbury was back on site at 9am today to ensure there were no hot spots that can flare up, and a mechanical digger will be used to drag out the contents and turn them over.

A fire investigation is continuing into the cause of the blaze.

The Paper Bag Company has confimed that it is still open for business. For more information, visit www.paperbagco.co.uk